JERUSALEM, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Israel's national expenditure on civilian research and development (R&D) in 2018 rose 4.6 percent, said a report released on Thursday by the state's Central Bureau of Statistics.

The increase is moderate compared with the 6.5-percent rise in 2017 and the 8.7-percent rise in 2016.

The report shows that Israeli expenditure on civilian R&D in 2018 totaled 65.7 billion new shekels at current prices (about 18.66 billion U.S. dollars).

This amount accounts for 4.9 percent of Israel's gross domestic product (GDP) compared with 4.8 percent of GDP in 2017.

Expenditure on civilian R&D in the Israeli business sector reached 58 billion new shekels in 2018 (16.47 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 88.3 percent of the total national expenditure on civilian R&D.

The rest of the expenditure was made by the higher education sector with 9.3 percent, the government sector with 1.5 percent and private non-profit institutions with 0.9 percent.

Spending on civilian R&D per capita in Israel reached 1,973 U.S. dollars in 2018 mainly because of a high number of multinational development centers in Israel.

Israel's R&D expenditure in the business sector increased by 5.1 percent in 2018, following a 7.3-percent increase in 2017 and a 10-percent increase in 2016.

The business sector mainly includes computer programming, computer consulting and other related services as well as scientific R&D.